I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.